[2023 Budget] KDCA 3.6985 Trillion Won ... 37% Reduction for Transition to Post-COVID Response System

Strengthening Infectious Disease Prediction, Analysis, Quarantine, and Medical Response
Expanding Chronic Disease Management and Medical Expense Support for Rare Disease Patients

[Asia Economy Reporter Jo In-kyung] The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) announced on the 31st that the 2023 budget approved at the Cabinet meeting on the 30th amounts to 3.6985 trillion KRW. This is a 36.9%, or 2.1589 trillion KRW, decrease compared to this year's main budget of 5.8574 trillion KRW.

As the government shifts the COVID-19 response system to focus on high-risk group management, the infectious disease response budget for next year was set at 4.5 trillion KRW, 2.4 trillion KRW less than this year, resulting in a significant reduction in KDCA's budget as well.

The KDCA explained, "Next year's budget will be used to establish a sustainable COVID-19 prevention response system and to advance the new infectious disease response system," adding, "Continuous infectious disease and chronic disease management, as well as expansion of health and medical research and development, will also be prioritized."

First, more than 70% of next year's budget will be allocated to COVID-19 prevention and vaccination. The budget for supporting COVID-19 diagnostic testing increased by 547.1 billion KRW from this year to 1.1731 trillion KRW, 716.7 billion KRW was allocated for the additional procurement of 15 million vaccine doses, and 384.3 billion KRW for the purchase of oral and injectable therapeutics. The budget for strengthening variant virus surveillance also surged by 107.7% from this year to 10.8 billion KRW. Budgets for quarantine response personnel support and the operation of the National Infectious Disease Crisis Response Advisory Committee were newly established at 3.2 billion KRW and 1.2 billion KRW, respectively.

The budget for strengthening continuous infectious disease management will also be partially increased. 19.2 billion KRW was newly allocated for the introduction of mandatory rotavirus vaccination for infants and young children, and 200 million KRW for the establishment of a next-generation vaccination system. The budget supporting the capacity building of regional disease response centers will increase by 78.6% from this year to 2.5 billion KRW.

In preparation for new infectious disease outbreaks, the budget for advancing crisis response systems and for bio big data, vaccine, and therapeutic development will be significantly increased.

The budget for the comprehensive infectious disease prevention and management information support system will jump 261.2% from 6.7 billion KRW this year to 24.2 billion KRW next year, and 1.6 billion KRW will be spent on strengthening epidemiological investigations, 77.8% more than this year. Additionally, 1.3 billion KRW each was newly allocated for cross-ministerial infectious disease prevention system advancement research and development (R&D) and human microbiome R&D. The budget for the public vaccine development support project will increase by 102.0% to 10.1 billion KRW.

Baek Kyung-ran, Commissioner of the KDCA, explained, "Next year, while maintaining a sustainable COVID-19 prevention response system, we focused on establishing an evidence-based response system to more meticulously address everyday infectious diseases and chronic diseases, which we were unable to fully attend to while responding to COVID-19."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.